By WESLIE STRATTON
Moapa Valley Progress
The fifth annual Mesquite Rotary Club Mudd Volleyball tournament took place on May 12 behind the Eureka Resort in Mesquite. Participants enjoyed a sunny and 75-degree day as they faced off against 21 various teams made up of high school students, business representatives, first responders and more.
A volleyball court was set up in a large mud bog for the event. Teams stood in the mud and ankle deep water to make the matches more challenging.
The event began with a standing tradition of the Mesquite police and fire departments competing against one another in a three game tournament. Other participants and spectators gathered around to watch representatives from the fire department beat the police team in game one. The police department team then tied the competition with a win in game two. But the police team fell to the fire department in game three.
Event Co-chair Linda Gault congratulated the fire department team on winning their first title of Studs Of The Mud Of The Year and expressed appreciation to both teams for their participation.
“You’ve come up and done this every year that I’ve asked you,” Gault said. “I couldn’t be prouder and I couldn’t be more happy and I cherish all of you!”
Gault presented the winning team with a traveling trophy that will remain with them for the year.
This is the first of four years that the fire department team has won the competition. Fire department team captain Zeb Jensen was very proud.
“We expected to win!” he said. “We were not going to lose a fourth year in a row.”
Jensen said that the department recruited well and practiced for the event.
“Win or lose it’s always fun,” he said. “But it’s always a little more fun when we can take it away from the police.”
Other teams consisted of representatives of Sears, Reliance Connects, TDS Cable, Mountain America Credit Union, non-business individuals and more. According to Gault five different businesses volunteered to sponsor teams this year.
One team of high school students said that they decided to participate to have some fun.
“It was just fun,” team captain Markell Ludvigson said. “We had a business sponsor us so we were able to come play. It was fun to come and be a part of the community!”
Overall tournament winners were S&S Construction with first place, Deep Roots with second place, Eureka Hotel with third place and Reliance Connects with the best team name of Sugar and Spikes.
